What one Guardian writer thought of her first foray into the world of Speed Dating.

A Guardian writer who blogs under the avatar of 'Northern Lass' for the Guardian's Northerner online magazine chose one of Fastlove's very own Elite Speed Dating events over in Manchester to come and dip her toes into the curious world of speed dating documenting her experience along the way.

Let's take a look and see what she had to say.

"... as mentioned in my last article, internet dating wasn’t really having the desired outcome for my friend Dan. The frustration of being ignored after what seemed like another promising date had led us to take action and look at new ways of meeting people."

The above quote is important to take in to account at a time where websites like Match.com are seen almost as the ultimate go-to-solution for singles to find that special someone.

Backed by massive advertising budgets and super high-tech personality matching computer algorithms, it's impossible to imagine online dating not working for everyone... right?

Moving on to this next quote, we can see it isn't only Dan who was ultimately met with disappointment by online dating:

"The Manchester based dating blogger Cubic Garden had mentioned to me that he had more success meeting suitable dates speed dating than he had internet dating. So we figured it was worth putting any preconceptions to one side and giving it a go."

Here Northern Lass mentions the seasoned dating blogger - Cubic Garden - who has also come to the conclusion though his own experiences that actual face-to-face dating events hold more success over internet dating.

It's also interesting to note the Northern Lass's admittance of 'preconceptions' - probably held by both her and her friend, Dan. As a speed dating and dating events organiser for over a decade, we can tell you this is the case for almost anyone who has never been speed dating before.

If you think about it, signing up for an account on an online dating website, adding a photo or two and hashing in some vital statistics about you and your personality, is a lot easier than gearing yourself up for an evening of meeting new single people and putting yourself out there... speed dating is literally putting yourself out there! Scary!

"The most striking thing about the whole process was the sheer amount of bilge you can cover with someone you have never met before – in three minutes. It was spectacular. Discussions ranged from the size of my calculator buttons with a maths teacher, one man’s Made in Chelsea addiction, the brief history of someone’s ex-girlfriend, and my being challenged by a pharmacist to try to buy three packs of paracetamol next time I was in Tesco."

The purpose of posting the above quote was to uncover the shocking mystery of what happens at a speed dating event; people engaging in natural human social behaviour... that's it! That's the big secret.

In a world of increasingly busy and solitary lives, Facebook and texting, our basic instincts for face-to-face social interaction are being neglected more and more.

The fact is, when given the chance these innate instincts of ours can surprise even ourselves when given the right environment to flourish. The human courtship process is such a complex one, it's surely impossible to get an initial 'feeling' about someone via a computer... no matter how good the matching algorithm.

We're not saying that no one ever has met their special someone online - of course, they have - but what we are saying is that you shouldn't put all your eggs in to one basket, and what worked for someone else, may not be the answer for you.

Coming to a speed dating event can give mother nature the opportunity to sort the whole process out for you - Fastlove is just the oil in this perfect, mighty organic machine!

You may not meet the right person for you on your first outing, your second or even your third, but you will always leave one of our events with new friends and a feeling of social nourishment, and surely that's better any email alert from a dating website.

So, we encourage you to visit the full article on The Guardian website and read the whole thing, come to your own conclusions and take it from there!

We have been Fastlove Speed Dating, we hold events all over the North West, including speed dating Manchester, speed dating Liverpool and Leeds speed dating. We hope to see you at one of our events very soon.

Cheers :-)

P.s. We also run the website Elite Speed Dating, specialising in events held in more upmarket venues and settings. You can view out current Elite events in Manchester, Elite events in Leeds, Liverpool, Chester and Wilmslow.